Startup Maroc hits the road again with an ambitious roadshow

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April is a busy month for Startup Maroc. The group of friends,
who have been working for three years to help foster an
entrepreneurial culture in Morocco, has turned into its own success
story, as we explained in this profile last
year. Now, after changing their name to a more marketable one –
goodbye ‘AMPII’, hello ‘StartUp Maroc’ – the
organization has added new cities to its Startup Weekend roadshow,
announced an upcoming report on the state of Moroccan
entrepreneurship, and is launching the second edition of their
national competition StartUpCup.

Upcoming events

The Startup Weekend roadshow launched this year with an event in
a new city, Khouribga, from April 4– 6, held at the École
Nationale des Sciences Appliquée. More than 200 participants took
part in the event, presenting a total of 65 ideas. In the end, they
grouped into 15 teams, each advised by one mentor.

During the launching ceremony of this first stop, StartUp
Maroc’s chairman Naoufal Chama announced that the roadshow will
stop this year in a total of 12 Moroccan cities: Casablanca, Rabat,
Khouribga, Fez, Tangier, El Jadida, Oujda, Laâyoune, Marrakech,
Agadir, Benguerir, and Safi.

Still driven by their mission of supporting Moroccan
entrepreneurship, the organization also announced two other
initiatives.

The first one is a study, in partnership with Capital
Consulting, aiming to analyze the needs of the Moroccan startups in
order to better serve them. This study will also engage with the
need to unite the local players in the same place, similar to the
Silicon Valley model.

The second project is a business plan competition: Maroc
StartUpCup, the Moroccan version of Silicon Valley-based
international network of events taking part in 65 countries.
Following the success of its first edition – read our
review here – the
organization has decided to renew it.

Faithful to Startup Maroc’s mission to educate young
entrepreneurs, the competition goes much further than awarding a
winner; it also coaches and advises participants throughout the six
months of competition to help them build and share a viable story
around an attractive business model. The competition also helps
startups highlight the need they’re addressing, define their
market, and develop a solid financial plan that works with their
business model. Interested startups have until April 30
to register.

Startup Weekend Khouribga

After deliberation, the jury gave Startup Weekend Khouribga’s
3rd prize to the Healthy Food team for their
barcode-scanning app that provides users information about the
product their scanning, useful for anyone suffering food allergies,
or following a specific diet.

The second-place prize went to Enjoying Learning (Madrasti
L7ilwa in Arabic) for their educative and playful mobile app
and their educational robot prototype, named CREMO, which they’ve
already tested on kids and their parents.

BesTiming won the first place, which came with a prize of 10,000
Moroccan dirhams (just over $1,200 USD), as well as a tablet, for
its mobile app that mixes task management, geolocalization, and
space, time, mood and even weather features.

Aline is startup storyteller and journalist. Previously she was Wamda's French editor and an entrepreneur, opening The Blue House residence for international startups in a Moroccan surf town. You can follow her on Twitter @YallahAline.